“Katie?”
Her russet brows inched up. They were perfectly formed, he noticed, adding a nice symmetry to her face.
“You have a daughter named Katie?” she asked.
“Yes. That’s her photo over there.”
“She’s lovely. How old is she?”
“Ten.” He was beginning to get annoyed. His time was valuable. Only his daughter took precedence over work. “You’re a teacher. I figured Katie was the reason you were here.”
“I’m here because of your other daughter. Molly.”
For an instant, Ben couldn’t breathe. No one had mentioned his older daughter in years. He wouldn’t allow it, couldn’t stand the shock it brought whenever he heard her name. The swift jolt of memories, the harsh stab of pain.
He stood up. “My daughter Molly is dead. She was abducted from our home six years ago. What the hell are you doing here?”
“I know about the abduction. I read the articles in the newspaper archives. As far as I can tell, they never found any trace of her and if that’s the case—”
“Molly’s dead!” Ben rounded the desk, his hands balling into fists as he tried to hang on to his temper. “Gerald Meeks killed her—along with God knows how many other children before he was captured and sentenced to life in prison. Now get out of my office!”
In an effort to avoid his wrath, Autumn slipped out of her chair and took a few steps backward as he advanced. “Please…I don’t believe Molly was murdered. I think she may still be alive and if she is, she needs your help.”
His insides contracted into a painful knot. Just talking about Molly made his stomach roll.
“Are you telling me you’ve seen her? Because if you are, I don’t believe you.” It had taken him years to convince himself but he had finally accepted the fact she was dead and no one was going to dredge up the awful heartbreak again.
“I haven’t seen her…not exactly, but—”
“Why the hell did you come here? What are you, some kind of charlatan? Or maybe you’re some kind of nut. Either way I want you out of here.” He walked past her and jerked open the tall mahogany door. “Ms. Sommers’s business here is finished,” he said to Jenn. “See her down to the lobby, will you? Make sure she leaves the building. Make sure she doesn’t return.”
“But I teach classes at the climbing gym,” she said quickly. “I’m also a member of the club. I’m there almost every day of the week.”
“Fine.” He fixed his eyes on Jenn, who was glaring at Autumn Sommers like a she-wolf protecting her cub. “See that she has access to the building, but not to any of the offices above the second floor.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Jenn said. “Come with me, Ms. Sommers.”
“I didn’t come here to cause trouble. I wanted to talk to you or your wife—”
Ben’s temper snapped. “Joanne and I have been divorced for nearly four years. You call her, you bother my family in any way, I’ll get a restraining order against you. Now get out!”
The woman said no more, just cast him a pitying glance and walked ahead of Jenn toward the elevator. Ben didn’t release the breath he had been holding till the elevator door slid closed and Autumn Sommers disappeared.
He didn’t know how long he stood there staring into space. Long enough for Jenn to return from her trip to the lobby.
“You all right, boss?” She had always been protective.
“I’m fine. I just…the woman’s some kind of nutcase. Or maybe she was trying to extort money from me or something. I don’t think she’ll show up here again.”
At least he hoped not. His brief encounter with Autumn Summers—Sommers with an O, he mentally corrected—had his stomach churning with acid. He’d have to pop a Pepcid before he’d be able to eat.
“You want me to have her checked out?” Jenn asked.
“Let it go for now. Like I said, I don’t think she’ll be back.” The woman was gone, but the memories were stirring. They were hovering in his head, threatening to come to life. He couldn’t afford to let that happen.
The best solution was to put his mind on something else…something that had nothing to do with his family or the past or involved his emotions.
Ben walked back into his office, sat down at his desk, opened the file on the Issaquah store, picked up the phone and went to work.
Five
Autumn trembled as she walked the few blocks to her apartment. She had known her meeting with Ben McKenzie wouldn’t be easy, but she hadn’t expected to be tossed out of the man’s office into the street!
The jerk wouldn’t even talk to her, wouldn’t give her the least chance to explain. She remembered the article she had uncovered about Gerald Meeks, a pedophile and serial killer who had been active in the Seattle area. He had been arrested and eventually convicted.
First thing in the morning, she was going back to the library to run Meeks’s name. Maybe she would find a reference to Molly, something that would explain Ben McKenzie’s belief that Meeks had killed her.
If she found proof that Molly was dead, she would drop the whole thing. She would take a sleeping pill every night until she stopped dreaming about the girl. Even if it took the rest of her life.
The following morning she dressed and headed for the gym. She would have to wait until afternoon to go back to the newspaper files. She worked out, then began her climbing class. In the last session, they had talked about getting the body in shape and discussed proper nutrition, then she’d spent the rest of the lesson getting her students familiar with the climbing wall.
Today she discussed proper clothing and equipment then demonstrated some climbing techniques. Throughout the class, Autumn was careful to keep her mind focused on her students and helping them learn the best and safest methods for addressing the climb. She didn’t allow her mind to stray toward little Molly McKenzie and what might have happened to her at the hands of Gerald Meeks.
Autumn suppressed a shudder, but the thought remained in the back of her head. As soon as class was over, she changed into street clothes and left for the library.
Running through the microfilm, she approached the search as she had before. Dozens of articles on Meeks surfaced in the newspaper files, from his arrest, all the way through his long, drawn-out trial. In the end, he had been sentenced to life in prison.
Autumn paused as Molly McKenzie’s name popped up in one of the articles. It appeared again in several more.
Though Meeks has only confessed to the murders of the two children whose bodies were found in what appeared to be his dumping ground at the bottom of a ravine, it is believed he is also responsible for the death of six-year-old Molly McKenzie, who also went missing in the area around that time.
Apparently Meeks never admitted to the crime, but he never denied it either. One article mentioned that the description of the man given to police by witness only vaguely matched that of Gerald Meeks, but the age of the witnesses, all of whom were children under the age of seven, and the disparity of the descriptions were a factor in concluding that Meeks was the man responsible for Molly’s abduction and murder.
In a later paper, Autumn saw again that efforts were made to get Meeks to give up information about the location of Molly’s body. Though he seemed to be the man responsible, Meeks never confessed and he never gave the police the location of the victim’s grave.
Because he didn’t kill her!
The